10.02.2008

chrome ball incident #137: titanium expose









when i first started chrome ball, if someone would have told me that it would take until #137 for ed templeton to come up, i would have laughed in their face. i would've told them that not only is the tempster one of my all-time favorite skateboarders, he is probably among my all-time favorite people as well (though I've never met him). but here it is, several months into this and he is just now making his presence known.

it wasn't through lack of effort, folks... the sheer enormity of his career in combination with a immense respect i have for the man caused me to kinda just keep putting it off (i was actually hoping he'd be #100). i've hinted at this before but its hard to tackle guys like ed because not only is his career 20 years deep of solid, steady coverage, skateboarding is also just one facet of the dude. he's an amazing artist and photographer as well... all of which tends to blur together within tv/television/toy machine, programming injection, anp quarterly and all kinds of other shit he's got going on. all in all, i guess i just wasn't sure where to start... but here it goes.

simply put, ed is ed. ed is gonna be doing his ed thing and that's just how its going down... for better or worse. he's gonna wear pants that fit in '92 and he's not gonna skate to hip hop in '96. he's gonna do impossibles and probably even some one-foots and he's gonna kill it. he's gonna take amazing photos and paint amazing pictures that may or may not include his dick and "onions" is not gonna wear deodorant while doing so. he's gonna teach kids about homophobia and veganism while embracing any backlash with the he-man ed haters club and ultimately, have the last laugh. he will constantly evolve and adapt, but on his own terms in the way he sees fit. easily one of the most self-deprecating and humble legends in any walk of life, ed is one funny dude with an endless/fearless creativity.

and that's more or less why i love the dude. he's an absolute individual who is not afraid to put shit out there and just be himself... a trait i'm recognizing more and more as i do these posts as to what makes a person truly great. dork.

so here it is. finally. it was hard editing this one down to 10... so many good flicks over the years. but a longtime personal source of embarassment no longer. i can rest easy now.

have a good weekend. and check out gino 10 while you're at it.

r.i.p. ptah.

14 comments:

smorales said...

Thank you much for this post. Ed is a complete inspiration.

Unknown said...

thank you, and wats the trick in the 3rd photo?

Anonymous said...

front-foot impossible

chops said...

i think that's actually one of ed's trademark back-foot impossibles... could be wrong though

Keith said...

Ed... I liked him in the New Deal promo and Useless Wooden Toys. In those days, he had a lot of great photos and sequences in magazines that didn't reveal his skate style, which IMO is a bid odd looking (knees together etc). Was never a fan of his skate style nor his art. I kind of lost interest after those 2 New Deal videos. Never owned an Ed Templeton board in my 20 years of skating.

That 3rd ad is an impossible, sequence is a fs bigspin. He's regular stance. No front foot anything.

Royce said...

3rd photo:

Main - ollie impossible
Seq - Frontside bigspin

chops said...

oh yeah, the sequence is a frontside big spin. sorry. i was just talking about the main photo. the frontside big spin is in 1281 i believe.

Rowan Morrison said...

Hey, it's vintage Ed "Check-Out-My-Wife" Templeton.

Keith said...

e... congrats getting props in the credits of gino 10.

Anonymous said...

my mistake. if it was ocean it definately would've been a front foot.

pizzy said...

Great Ed post.How about that Circle A ad of him 5050ing a handrail. His first interview in transworld was also good. I guess having jason lee as your friend pushing you will make you pretty good. I remember reading a funny story of them skating with gonz and natas. Ed ends up bumming natas out by doing a trick that he wanted to do.

Could you post some old marc johnson stuff?

chops said...

damn keith, thanks for noticing homie. i was going on the humble as i didn't want to blow my own spot with the self-props, but i'm so stoked on it that its ridiculous.

no worries, jason. the 90s are filled with stills of "mystery tricks" that are completely open to interpretation.

thanks pizzy... i actually scanned the circle a 50-50 but it got cut out.. i gathered together and scanned a bunch of personal faves and wasn't paying attention, i ended up scanning over 20 joints. look for it in the future though. Brainwash Victim has the first ed TWS interview up over there.

Both MJ (weird now seeing pics of dude with hair) and Clyde are coming... promise.

Keith said...

one of the most messed up mystery tricks from the 90's was a Mccrank sequence in iirc tws vancouver, canada or rds article. Out of a bowl onto flat. some sort of varial with a flip with a revert. He even said the caption was wrong.

GRIP FACE said...

nice photos !
original imposible tailgraps
grande paz